Censorship in China is widely known and lamented. Chinese literature has a long history of what Emily Dickinson's poem alluded to: Tell all the Truth but tell it slant. It's possible that Mo Yan chooses "not to speak" about the political situation directly, but to tell it slant.

In 2010 the Nobel Prize for Literature was given to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who is serving an 11-year sentence for his pro-democracy views. Officials in China went into a fit of rage. But 2012 saw the Prize go to Mo Yan, an important member of Communist Party.